A group that has fought a long-running campaign against the next stage of work to duplicate the main road connecting Melbourne and Adelaide fears time is running out to halt the "unnecessarily destructive and expensive" project.

As locals on Melbourne's south-western fringe fight plans for a youth justice centre in their suburb, the ABC speaks to residents of Ararat, in Victoria's west, about what it it is like to live near a prison.

In a tiny church kitchen in rural Victoria, a group of former prisoners is busily producing jam drops for primary school children. Some of the men describe their baking as a quest for redemption, but among their young customers they've already earned the title "Alli's Angels". Read full story.